Unreleased Ed Sheeran song thief ordered to repay £100,000
Adrian Kwiatkowski, a 23-year-old resident of Ipswich, was convicted of hacking into the digital accounts of popular musicians Ed Sheeran and Lil Uzi Vert.
He unlawfully obtained two songs from Ed Sheeran and twelve songs from Lil Uzi Vert, subsequently attempting to sell them on the dark web in exchange for cryptocurrency.
Following his criminal activities, Kwiatkowski has now been ordered to repay an amount exceeding £100,000.
He pleaded guilty to three charges of unauthorized access to computer material, fourteen charges of producing and selling copyrighted articles, one charge of converting criminal property, and two charges of possessing criminal property.
Consequently, he was sentenced to an 18-month imprisonment by the Ipswich Crown Court in October of the previous year.
Adrian Kwiatkowski ordered to pay £101,053
As a result of the court’s decision on May 26th, the hacker has been instructed to pay £101,053 within a three-month period.
The order was granted by the Police Intellectual Crime Unit (PIPCU) at City of London Police. This amount comprises £51,975 that was discovered in a bank account owned by Kwiatkowski, along with 2.64 Bitcoin valued at £49,528. Notably, this marks the first instance where PIPCU has successfully obtained a confiscation order involving cryptocurrency.
According to Detective Constable Daryl Fryatt of PIPCU, Kwiatkowski orchestrated a sophisticated scheme to sell copyrighted material that he had no ownership rights to.
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The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office initiated an investigation in 2019 after several music management companies reported that an individual known as “Spirdark” had gained unauthorized access to multiple accounts and was illicitly selling the content contained within them.
During the investigation, City of London Police established a connection between the email address used to create Spirdark’s cryptocurrency account and Kwiatkowski. Furthermore, they identified Kwiatkowski’s home address as the source of the IP address used to hack into one of the accounts.
In September 2019, PIPCU officers apprehended Kwiatkowski, and a subsequent search yielded the seizure of seven devices, including a hard drive containing 1,263 unreleased songs by 89 different artists. Among the discoveries were 565 audio files, including songs by Ed Sheeran and Lil Uzi Vert, found on Kwiatkowski’s Apple Mac.
Failure to repay the sum of £101,053 within the designated three-month timeframe could result in an additional 18-month prison sentence for Kwiatkowski, in addition to his current incarceration.
Source : http://www.itv.com
“Unreleased Ed Sheeran song thief ordered to repay £100,000
